Diseño de una metodología para la gestión de flujo de pacientes en servicios de salud basado en estrategias lean y patrones de proceso de negocios

Abstract

The flow of patients is the continuous capacity of patient care of a service in the stages of care in which clinical and administrative activities and decisions are involved. When this flow varies, is delayed or interrupted, patients tend to accumulate at various points in the provision of the service, leading to delays, overcrowding, risks and nonconformity in the care and delay in payments for the provision of the service, generating economic losses to institutions. This flow can be efficiently managed in order to avoid these drawbacks by combining quantitative and qualitative measurement and prediction techniques with unified and agile strategies of readiness, preparation, unblocking, referral and proper use of resources in the emergency services, hospitalization, support diagnosis and therapeutic complement, surgical and outpatient consultation. In Colombia, there is no methodology to improve indicators related to patient flow management in health services, and hospitals implement fragmented practices based on national and international benchmarks. Objective: This research project aims to define and test the improvement of hospital patient flow management through an instrumentalized methodology in an information system designed using Lean strategies in conjunction with Business Engineering. Methodology: Research based on design science (Design Science Research) applied in a case study. Expected Results: Generate a transferable and scalable sector regulation for the management of patient flows, link the Santo Tomás University to the national ecosystem of hospital management and quality academic production.